Superdiversity Centre for Law, Policy and Business

The Superdiversity Centre for Law, Policy and Business is a multidisciplinary centre specialising in analysing the law, policy and business implications of New Zealand’s superdiversity. The vision for the Centre is to enable Government, business and NGOs to maximise the benefits of the ‘diversity dividend’ arising from New Zealand’s transition to a superdiverse society.

Members of the Centre regularly contribute to the public debate around superdiversity, which you can read about here.

The Diversity Matrix

The Diversity Matrix: Refreshing What Diversity Means for Law, Policy and Business in the 21st Century is a follow-up publication to the Superdiversity Stocktake. It discusses how we need to refresh what the word ‘diversity’ means in 21st century New Zealand, so that it is not constrained to gender or ethnicity, and takes into account the multifaceted nature of every person’s identity. Properly defining diversity is critical to business, customers and employees, and will also affect how local and central government should tailor their approach to policy-making and citizen engagement, as addressed in the Superdiversity Stocktake.

The Diversity Matrix builds on this by examining the implications of undertaking a ‘matrix approach’ to diversity for the enforcement of our anti-discrimination laws, taking into account issues experienced by overseas courts in undertaking an “intersectional” approach to discrimination, and research on the compounded disadvantage experienced by certain groups. The Diversity Matrix will be published by the Superdiversity Centre for Law, Policy and Business in February 2017.

Superdiversity Stocktake: Implications for Business, Government and New Zealand

There is currently a gap in analysing the legal and policy challenges of superdiversity and the implications for business. The Superdiversity Stocktake is designed to help us adapt to a superdiverse New Zealand, and make sure we are fit for the future. We cannot gain the benefits of superdiversity without understanding and addressing the challenges that come with the diversity dividend, and investing in social capital to keep financial capital high.

The Superdiversity Stocktake is New Zealand’s first stocktake of the implications of New Zealand’s ethnic superdiversity for business, government and citizens. The Stocktake includes relevant statistics and research on ethnic superdiversity, recommendations for best practice, new surveys results of the impact of superdiversity on business, government and citizens, key benefits, issues and challenges from superdiversity and a stocktake of Government departments and the work they are doing to adjust to ethnic superdiversity and the needs of the new New Zealand, including a top four and a ‘most improved’.

If you would like to know more about the Superdiversity Stocktake and the Superdiversity Centre’s work, please contact the Centre at: info@superdiversity.org

Superdiversity, Democracy and New Zealand’s Electoral and Referenda Laws

This study, funded in part by the New Zealand Law Foundation, analyses the democratic implications of New Zealand’s superdiversity transition, given that voter participation in New Zealand is in decline, with Maori, Pacific peoples and new migrants overrepresented among those who do not vote.

“Superdiversity, Democracy and New Zealand’s Electoral and Referenda Laws” analyses the accommodations which New Zealand’s electoral laws already make for eligible voters with little or no English, and recommends further improvements based on a review of the electoral systems of comparable superdiverse cities and countries overseas.

A copy of the study has been read by Robert Peden, Chief Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission and Kylie Archer, Director of the Flag Consideration Project. Superdiversity Centre Chair Mai Chen presented the paper’s findings to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee’s inquiry into the 2014 Election on 15 October 2015 in an open session.

The study is available free of charge from this website from 3 November 2015.